Parents wait as their children are treated for bee stings at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi. Photo credit: Thanh Ha/ Tien Phong

A total of 51 students of a primary school in Hanoi were sent to hospital on Wednesday after a swarm of bees attacked them.

The bees reportedly stung the children at the Yen So Primary School in Hoang Mai District at around 3 p.m. The children ran in chaos, crying and screaming for help.

The school guards and teachers quickly took them to safe places before rushing them to Bach Mai Hospital. They said the bees were either black or dwarf honey bees.

The students said that during the mid-afternoon recess, some students of a nearby junior high school threw stones at a beehive.

The hive dropped and the bees attacked them, they said.

Doctor Nguyen Cong Long said that 48 children had been discharged from the hospital by 11 p.m. after being examined and treated, while three others aged 6-10 were still being monitored for suffering many stings.

Earlier on November 3, a 13-year-old girl was admitted to the hospital after suffering 115 hornet stings. Ly Quynh Trang from the northern province of Hoa Binh was collecting wood sticks for cooking at her boarding school.